Rugby: Whanganui women win North Island Heartland Series

The Longrun Spouting Whanganui women's team won the North Island Heartland Series with a win over East Coast in Ruatōria.

Brought to you by Whanganui Rugby

The Longrun Spouting Whanganui women brought the North Island Heartland Series crown back home on the bus after a gutsy 25-22 win over the previously unbeaten Ngāti Porou East Coast Hamoterangi at Ruatōria’s Whakarua Park on Saturday.

Reversing the 30-29 defeat of seven days before in the last round-robin fixture, Whanganui started with a sixth-minute penalty from fullback Alice Ireton, before East Coast hit back off a Whanganui overthrow with prop Taare Haua-Kahaki Rei charging through to score and first five-eighths Keelan Goldsmith converting.

Whanganui then scored back-to-back tries with halfback Taylah Barrett working with second five-eighths Waimanawa Potaka-Osborne Whanarere to get the pass-back drive over, followed by centre Tiana Kauika snatching up an attacking chip kick to run under the posts. Ireton then converted both five-pointers for a 17-7 lead.

There was just enough time for the home team to strike back before halftime, with centre Nikita Wharehinga snatching up a ruck ball and holding off three tacklers for her pack to drag her over the tryline.

East Coast then equalised in the 56th minute after a succession of quick taps on penalties, as Wharehinga again barged her way over for a double, but it was short-lived as the hosts spilled the restart and from the scrum, Whanganui spread the ball wide to winger Teresa Rennie to dash away to the corner.

An Ireton penalty established a 25-17 buffer, but East Coast came charging back at the death, getting an attacking lineout and moving the ball to winger Dane-a Kopa to just reach out and score.

But Whanganui kept their composure, trapping East Coast in their own half until securing a ruck penalty to kick the ball out for fulltime.

Coach Junior Nepia had made a handful of key positional swaps in the back three and the forward pack, and they all came up trumps.

“Especially at set-piece time, our set piece went really well on our scrumming side, a few overthrows with our lineout but they adjusted those fairly quickly,” Nepia said.

“We knew that if we came here and we played better than what we did last week, we’ll give ourselves an opportunity, and we did that.

“We brought a bottle of Whanganui River water with us – we put that on the field before the game, just for a bit of home with us.

“We needed that, the river’s a part of our identity and where we’re from, we used that as our connection piece.

“All we know is they gave their best today, our team did.”

Whanganui 25 (T. Barrett, T. Kauika, T. Rennie tries; A. Ireton 2 pen, 2 con) bt East Coast 22 (N. Wharehinga 2, T. Haua-Kahaki Rei, D. Kopa tries; K. Goldsmith con). HT: 17-12.